


Gifts

by larissabernstein



Series: Robed in Strength [3]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Episode: s01e11 Rôti, Gen, Introspection, POV Female Character, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-28 04:34:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6315190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larissabernstein/pseuds/larissabernstein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This vignette takes place during episode 1x11, <em>Rôti</em>.</p><p>It's hands-on journalism, really.</p><p>Written for Purimgifts 2016.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gifts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JinkyO](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinkyO/gifts).



If she were completely honest with herself - but who can afford that anyway - she would need to admit that journalism sucks.  
  
And we are not talking about tabloid journalism and sensationalist blogging here - because, hey, there’s no shame in this particular style of writing. If you are already doing the dirty work then you can damn well own it for what it’s worth. Tabloids and true crime blogs are no better or worse than broadsheets and their internet equivalents. Because, yes, even highbrow journalism with its Pulitzers and whatnot - sucks.   
  
Truth to be told - and, again, who can afford that in the most literal way - she’s always wanted to become an author. A respectable and award-winning novelist. But as these things go, people prefer real life stories over literary imagination. Who cares about well-crafted world building and character development when you can get your fix of sex and crime so much easier with celebrities cheating on each other, politicians starting their own reality shows, and serial killers confessing the truth, the truth and nothing but the truth. Or at least an entertaining version of it, aptly illustrated with high definition pics.  
  
Real life and drama will always beat art. Why else do people rather read the autobiography (ghost-written, what else) of a third-rate starlet than _War and Peace_?  
  
So, please, enough already with this whole _l’art pour l’art_ crap. It is phoney. People seek entertainment, and they want to know what’s really going on in their own little world. Their country, their town, their neighbourhood. Your councilman is missing and they found a severed foot in the park? The police is withholding vital information from the public? Your friendly neighbour might be a killer? This is what people are interested in. And an author needs to pay the rent. You can’t put clickbait ads in a novel.  
  
Still, journalism sucks. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, and there are moments when Freddie really wishes she would have stuck with the dreams of her childhood. Then she could at least sit in her parents’ basement, eat cheap ramen, and slave away at her third novel in the hope of finally finding some monetary success and critical recognition. At least she would not have to face situations like the one she’s currently in. Blood spatters on her nice coat, a psychopathic serial killer wielding a scalpel too close for her liking, the intestines of Dr Chilton obscenely spilling out of his body. The benefits of a most exclusive story and authentic hands-on journalism become undoubtedly a bit tainted when it is her hand that operates the respirator which keeps the man from succumbing to his injuries.  
  
She’s had her fair share of dangerous situations in the span of her career. She’s also had her fair share of blood spattered clothes, with Eldon Stammets shooting a detective in the head at close distance being one of the most shocking moments for sure. But this happened too fast to process it at the moment; it is a far cry from being forced to actively assist a serial killer with the mutilation of his latest victim. For a gift basket to boot.  
  
Oh, the things she does for her job!

 

Woman with wax tablets and stylus, fresco from Pompeii, about 50 AD (National Archaeological Museum of Naples)


End file.
